Metallica amping up Giants, fans
One of the top rock bands in the world and the defending World Series champions joined forces Friday night in San Francisco.
Metallica lead singer and guitarist James Hetfield and guitarist Kirk Hammett performed the national anthem before the Giants’ game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at AT&T Park.
Also, drummer Lars Ulrich threw out the first pitch to Giants closer Sergio Romo. On the scoreboard in center field, Giants’ players photos were shown with 1980s Metallicalike hairdos when they batted.
Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo told The Associated Press said he could get used to playing at ballparks and arenas.
“What’s special about this is you can actually merge the two worlds together,” Trujillo said.
“I feel that music is such an inspriational form of energy, asbaseball is. And especially with Metallica, believe it or not, our shows are very physical. Sports is a very physical thing, too.”
Trujillo added that he is hoping the band performs at an Oakland Raiders game sooner rather than later.
“We’ll see, maybe the Raiders are around the corner, you never know,” he said. “I think we could be starting something here. Maybe this transitions into other bands uniting with their local team and representing and bringing that kind of excitementinto the sport.”
Metallica’s music has been used by sports teams over the past 25 years. Their 1991 classic song, “Enter Sandman,” is used as the entrance music for New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera.
The San Jose Sharks currently use Metallica’s “Seek and Destroy” as their pregame entrance song.
The band members live in nearby Marin County and support several Bay Area sports teams.
In fact, Hetfield is cheering for the Sharks, who have a 3-0 lead against the Vancouver Canucks in their first-round Western Conference series.
“Any sports team is a little tough for me to follow all the time,” he said. “We’re pretty busy ourselves. But I love it, especially when Bay Area teams are doing well. I just love what it does to people.”
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Sports, Pages 18 on 05/07/2013